CONTRASTING FLUID TYPES AT THE NEVORIA GOLD DEPOSIT IN THESOUTHERN CROSS GREENSTONE BELT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA: IMPLICATIONS OFAURIFEROUS FLUIDS DEPOSITING ORES WITHIN AN ARCHEAN BANDED IRON-FORMATION

Abstract

Two main hydrothermal mineral assemblages have been identified in the banded iron-formation-hosted gold mine at Nevoria. The earlier quartz ± garnet ± clinopyroxene ± calcite vein group formed pre- or synmetamorphic, and the later quartz ± pyrrhotite ± pyrite vein group appears to be postmetamorphic and related to gold mineralization. Fluid inclusion characteristics are obviously different in those two vein groups. Microthermometric analysis indicates that the fluids with metamorphic alteration are aqueous, CO2-rich or CO2-absent solutions; no or very small amounts of CH4 were involved in this fluid. Mineralizing fluids were a CH4-CO2-H2O solution. The initial auriferous fluids were CH4 dominant. Heterogeneous trapping, interaction of the hydrothermal fluid with graphite-bearing rocks, or fluid mixing may cause large variations of CH4/CO2 ratios or a XCH4 of CH4-CO2-H2O inclusions, particularly in mineralized quartz-pyrrhotite veins. Phase mixing or separating, resulting in an increase in pH and f O2, together with loss of reduced sulfur by mineral-fluid reactions and precipitation of sulfides, led to the breakdown of the gold-transporting complexes.